a) Field of the Invention
The invention is related to an improved beater for use with bass drum assemblies, wherein a pedal is used for striking bass drums commonly incorporated into musical instrument drum sets. More particularly, the invention provides a versatile beater design whereby the percussionist can achieve distinctly different drum sounds, or attack sounds, by choosing the appropriate beater surface.
b) Description of Related Art
An example of an ordinary drum pedal 100 is shown as FIGS. 1 and 2. The drum pedal 100 comprises a beater 110, an operating part 120 and a pedal 130. The pedal 100 is fixed to a bass drum 140 by a fixing member 105, such as a toe clamp. The drum pedal has a base and support 102. A spring 103 returns the beater to its retracted position.
The beater 110 comprises a rod 111 and a main beater body 112 on the rod. The rod 111 is fixed to the pedal axle 121 of the operating part 120. The main beater body 112 is typically made of felt. The rod 111 runs through the body 112 and the body 112 is installed at the tip of the rod 111 by a nut 113.
The operating part 120 is comprised of the pedal axle 121, a wheel 122 mounted on and rotatable with the axle 121 and a chain 123 trained on the wheel 122 and operable to rotate it. The pedal axle 121 is supported horizontally and freely rotatably at the top of the support 102. The rod 111 and the wheel 122 which rotates integrally with the rod 111 are provided on the axle 121.
The wheel 122 comprises a sprocket or a partial sprocket, and the chain 123 has an end which is fixed to the wheel 122 and is wound on its outer periphery. The other end of the chain 123 is connected to the free swinging tip of a foot pedal 131 of the pedal 130. As the foot pedal 131 is stepped on, the chain 123 is pulled down, which rotates the wheel 122 and the rod 111, thereby causing the main beater body 112 to beat the drum head 141 of the bass drum 140.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,946 to Hoshino teaches an arrangement wherein a beater head is supported to be selective adjustable in its orientation around an axis transverse to the longitudinal axis of the support rod of the beater head. As shown in FIG. 3, the striking surface 10a of the beater head 10 may be oriented to properly strike the drum face 141.
Conventional beater heads however are formed with a single striking surface as shown in FIG. 3, or are formed with a cylindrical or spherical head as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
The conventional beater heads are formed of one of a felt-type or wood material which produce particular attacks sounds upon striking the drum face. The softer felt-type material produces a relatively "warm" sound compared to the "hard" sound produced by beater head formed of the wood or rigid material. When a percussionist desires to alter the attack sound of the beater striking the drum face, the drum beater must be removed from the mounting 30 shown in FIGS. 1-3, and replaced with the beater formed with the appropriate material.
The need exists for a beater head having multiple striking surfaces for producing a variety of attack sounds, wherein a single multi-task beater may be adjusted or oriented in a convenient manner to achieve the desired attack sound. The need exists for a beater which can replace common task-specific beaters with a single multi-task beater.